It's sad to see tournament threads lie idle. Imagine that the only issue until today was who Mathieu is.

Scott - Del Potro has found his groove. Are you watching?

Alex- I don't know if you can watch, but , attacking tennis in the Anderson match! I can't bring myself to move away & have just cancelled a meeting!

He took the 2nd set TB with some exquisite play & is up a break in the 3rd set. Anderson did well to keep the points short & play aggressively in the first & part of the second set. Del Potro had to call a trainer & looked out of it, but he has really opened up his shoulders here.

I enjoyed both semi-finals matches. Del Potro was quite superb against Gasquet, who had no meaningful answer for hos opponent. There were breaks of serve by both early in the second set, and I thought Rg would pull back the deficit, but D-P clearly had other ideas. 6-2,6-2.

Hopefully an exciting final on tap in Basel! Here is my analysis and prediction. I encourage others to make theirs! After all, none of us has a working crystal ball.

[1] Roger Federer (SUI) vs. [2] Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG)

Roger has come through 6 consecutive times this year against Juan on every surface, outdoors and indoors, and at every level, 500's to majors.

But some of them have been real, real close. Dubai was 7-6 (5), 7-6 (6), Del Potro led 2 sets to love at Roland Garros before collapsing. And their last one at Wimbledon was one for the ages with Del Potro grabbing the first set and Federer taking the 2nd set tiebreaker and the 3rd set marathon set 19-17. Indoors at Rotterdam early this year was an easy win for Federer - 6-1, 6-4.

Del Potro has been playing well of late, winning the Vienna title last week, but hasn't met someone of Federer's caliber in a while.

Federer has been struggling a bit since Shanghai where he said he wasn't getting enough practice, but seems to be rounding into form in his last couple of efforts against Paire and Mathieu, especially his serve, which is key. In those last two matches he never faced a break point. This is the kind of serving he did in Cincinnati the whole tournament.

To sum up, I think this match indoors in Federer's back yard is on Federer's racquet. If Federer continues his excellent serving and controlled aggressive play as he has in the last couple of matches, Del Potro will be under extreme pressure on his own serve. If Federer's serve goes away for some reason, I think Del Potro can take advantage, but I don't see this happening now. Federer is trending better and he's playing indoors in front of his home crowd. Look for him to win in 2 sets, perhaps one more difficult and one easier. If Juan is playing very well, I could see the first set going to a tiebreaker. I'll predict:

Thanks Gawdblessya. I think your points are all valid. The last one about neither man has met the quality of that they will soon encounter especially. I have a feeling that Federer's struggles earlier admittedly against more inferior players, still did him good, especially where Bellucci gave Federer a good test that made him raise his level. Still, those players are not at Del Potro's level.

But one has to take care of one's own game first, and I think with Federer, the serve is key. This year, his serve has been better than many a year. His second serve especially is the difference. He leads all players in 2nd serve win pct. When he is around 60% or higher with this stat, he is tough to beat. Earlier this year, even when his serve wasn't completely on, he managed to compensate by raising other parts of his game. I think that this late in the season, he hasn't been able to rely on that, so I think his serve will be crucial for him.

Del Potro has to somehow remain confident that he can beat Federer despite losing 7 straight. He needs Federer to be less than his best and a little luck, while he has to be aggressive and hit deep with his forehand when he gets the opportunity. He can't let Federer jerk him on a string all around the court with slices, angles, etc.

Congrats to Juan Martin Del Potro for winning his 1st ATP 500 of the year and breaking his 7 match losing streak to Federer in Federer's back yard! Del Potro played a great first set, with the only break of the match when Federer's serve went astray one game.

Federer generally didn't play that well off the ground or return, but hung in there largely due to his serve. He had some brilliant shots, mostly volleys, but far and few between. His second set was an improvement over the first and he played a good tiebreaker. But then in the 3rd, after missing many chances to break, he played one of the worst tiebreakers I've seen from him, delivering over 5 unforced errors from 2-2 especially on some Del Potro rather weak second serves. Even Del Potro looked surprised at a couple of the errors.

Anyway, Federer was erratic and Del Potro played more steady for the whole match and deserved to win. So much for my prediction...that's how it goes sometimes Let's see if I'll be closer with my Ferrer-Dolgopolov prediction.